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Don\'t Let Niello Wash Your Car!

I have two BMW's and have taken them to Niello regularly for service. One of my cars is a dark blue and I seemed to have a problem developing with terrible clear coat scratches in the paint and heavy swirl marks. I did a complete Zaino treatment on the car and had decent results in minimizing the scuffs to the clearcoat. At one point, I was browsing the stock area between the Mini and BMW dealership during the week. I look over and witness an employee washing a beautiful 330Ci with a large heavy SCRUB BRUSH across the hood! That next time I went into service I forgot to tell the Advisor (Brian Munger) that I did not want them to wash the car. Well, I ended up calling in the afternoon to see if it had been washed and he had confirmed to me that it had. He asked why and I told him the story of how I saw someone just brushing the car down with a large elephant brush. He told me that they ONLY use chamois cloth when washing the vehicle but do use a brush to clean the tires and wheels. I told him that I was sure he was using the brush on the painted surface and he told me he would look into it. Sure enough, my car clear coat was all scratched up.

Recently.. I stopped by the dealership with a friend of mine looking at the new X5's. While walking back by the car wash area and once again witnessed a car being brushed down with a large handled SCRUB BRUSH!! I was pissed at that point. I was pissed for whoever’s car that was and also for the attitude that was given to me about the complete improbability of what I was originally describing to the advisor. I walked right up with my friend to the service manager and told him the situation. He acted upset and walked over to the car wash area but I have a feeling it was just for "show." If you have a car finish you care about it is probably good ideas not to have ANYONE wash it but yourself, but in Niello's case, your cars finish will be seriously damaged each time they hit it with their malicious techniques.

argh, what a nightmare

can't say i'm terribly surprised though - i was treated very poorly at Niello.

At Weatherford in Berkeley they actually asked me if I wanted the car washed or not and when I declined they actually stuck a sign in the window and it was not washed. I was happy and amazed, no other dealer has asked me first and done something so logical.

Re: niello is not cool

I almost did business with them but backed out, they were not very nice either, dealer thought I was some rich person with wads of money pouring out of my pockets...actually the only good thing they did for me was get me approved for a good finance rate for the car I bought. The other dealership I did business with could not even come close to the numbers they got and finally said to me to convince Neillo to fax the approval and they would give me a better deal. hahaha...who is your daddy now...I am glad I did business with the other dealership, they even gave me a free loaner of the same model to drive for four days while they located the car I was buying, you gotta say that is nice. like saying "here, take this other car that is just like it and abuse the hell out of it while we find your car."

actually....

cable carwash in davis does quite a good job for CHEAP :)
i know because my sister has been going there throughout her undergraduate career
i still get my car washed when i'm in town
there's a horrible place down on freeport blvd near sac city college though
forget the name, they suck

Re: Don\'t Let Niello Wash Your Car!

Think of it this way the idiot running the brush is probably paid $4.00 or whatever min. is and has a IQ of 2. Probably was told to use the Chamois but didn't understand. The service advisors and manager probably don't go out there to watch this idiot. Contact the GM of Niello and register a complaint. When you get the call back from BMW give them 0s or tell your service advisor that he will get the zeros unless someone takes care of your car before BMW calls.
Mt. Hamilton,San Jose, CA.2003
2000 740i Impala brown
My baby
BMW Food for the soulKevin Goto

Watch out for watches too!

I used to get free car washes from Infiniti because they were closer to home and the owner also owned the BMW dealership where I bought my car. Infiniti gave free hand washes on Saturday using the mitt but I noticed that a lot of the employees wore watches with metal bracelets during the drying process. Once I saw that, it was the last time I went back to Infiniti. I guess I'm not surprised that dealers don't have rules regarding wearing jewelry when washing cars.

Might have been a brush for cleaning cars!...

There are brushes used to clean paint. I've used them before. I'm not disputing your eyewitness account, just letting you know that there are products out there that might look a little strange for that use...

Yeah i am pretty sure this was not the case

just the fact that my first and second acusation of the use resulted in denials and shocked looks from the advisor and management. Also, I have seen the brushes approved for use on paint (the kind mechanical car wash use) and this was more like the kind of brush you would use to scrub patio furniture or perhaps car tires.